Eric K. Shinseki

Eric K. Shinseki, in full Eric Ken Shinseki, (born November 28, 1942, Lihue, Hawaii [U.S.]), U.S. Army officer who was the first Asian American to achieve the rank of four-star general. He commanded North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) peacekeeping forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1997–98), served as army chief of staff (1999–2003), and was secretary of veterans affairs (2009–14) in the administration of Pres. Barack Obama.

Shinseki was born less than a year after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and his parents, like other Japanese Americans at the time, were classified by the U.S. government as “enemy aliens.” To prove their loyalty to their adopted country, three of his uncles enlisted in the army, and they served in Europe in the all-Japanese 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team. In spite of early misgivings about the use of Nisei (second-generation Japanese American) troops, the soldiers established a reputation for unmatched bravery, and Nisei units went on to become some of the most decorated in U.S armed forces history. Shinseki was inspired by his uncles’ service, and he entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he earned a B.A. in engineering and a second lieutenant’s commission in 1965. Later that year, he began the first of two combat tours in Vietnam. He was awarded three Bronze Stars for valour and a Purple Heart with an Oak Leaf Cluster—he received the latter honour for a combat injury that cost him part of his right foot. He spent almost a year recovering from his wounds, but he returned to active duty in 1971.

Shinseki earned an M.A. in English from Duke University (1976) before taking a position as an instructor at West Point. He continued to advance along the officer career track, with extended postings at the Pentagon and with the 3rd Infantry Division in West Germany, and in 1991 he was promoted to brigadier general. He received his first division command when he was named commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division in 1994, and he earned his second star later that year. Shinseki added a third star in 1996, and he was named commander in chief of U.S. Army forces in Europe the following year. During this time, he also served as commander of NATO land forces in central Europe, as well as commander of the NATO stabilization mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He earned his fourth star in August 1997, and Pres. Bill Clinton nominated him to the post of army chief of staff in April 1999.

Shinseki remained on as army chief of staff during the administration of Pres. George W. Bush, but his tenure was marked by increasing tension with civilian leaders in the Pentagon. Shinseki subscribed to Secretary of State Colin Powell’s doctrine that military force, if used, should be overwhelming in size, speed, and power. This conflicted with the “small footprint” strategy espoused by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his assistant, Paul Wolfowitz, who believed that advanced battlefield technology and precision weapons made large bodies of traditional infantry obsolete. In the days leading up to the Iraq War, this doctrinal clash became public, when Shinseki testified before Congress in 2003 that an invasion of Iraq would require “several hundred thousand soldiers” and that a post-war occupation could awaken “ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems.” These statements were immediately refuted by Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, and Shinseki retired a few months later. In 2008 Obama nominated Shinseki to serve as secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the second largest agency in the federal government. He was approved by the Senate in January 2009.

Although long wait times for veterans seeking treatment at VA medical facilities had been reported for years, in 2014 evidence emerged that some facilities had covered up and misrepresented those wait times and that veterans had died before they received care. Amid intensifying allegations of systemic misconduct at the VA, Shinseki resigned in May 2014.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen, Corrections Manager.

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